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MAI Journal 2018: Volume 7 Issue 1

Publication Date:

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

This general issue of MAI Journal, Volume 7, Issue 1 (2018) contains a number articles covering a diverse range of research areas including kaupapa Māori film theory and Māori resistance in film history, young parenthood from a Māori perspective. This general issue also includes a Themed Supplement with a particular focus on Whai Rawa: Research for Māori economies.

The lead article by Angela Moewaka Barnes, titled Kia manawanui: Kaupapa Māori film theoretical framework considers the ways in which elements of Kia Manawanui: Kaupapa Māori Film Theoretical Framework can be utilised to interrogate Māori film texts as well as film production. Importantly, the author emphasises that "in the predominantly Eurocentric field of film studies, Indigenous understandings are vital to elucidate and develop understandings about Indigenous media and representations of indigeneity more generally”

The second article in this issue is a co-authored piece by Felicity Ware, Mary Breheny and Margaret Forster titled Mana mātua: Being young Māori parents. The research presented in this article draws upon the voices and stories of young Māori parents to shed light on the strategies used to negotiate the space between Māori understandings about raising children and Western assumptions of positive parenting and young parenthood.

The third article in this issue by Jani Katarina Taituha Wilson, titled Māori Resistance in New Zealand feature film history. This paper examines three distinctive examples of collective resistance by Māori in New Zealand film history to demonstrate the significance of resistance in the development of the film industry in Aotearoa. Overall the paper sheds light on how silence has been used by Māor as a powerful mechanism to protest and resist in New Zealand film history.

The co-authored commentary piece by Tyron Love, Jörg Finsterwalder and Alastair Tombs, titled Māori knowledge and consumer tribes is the first article in the themed supplement for volume 7(1) Whai Rawa – research for Māori economies. The paper considers the ways in which consumer research may benefit from stronger engagement with Māori ways of knowing.

The second paper in the Whai Rawa theme is co-authored by Maria Amoamo, Diane Ruwhiu and Lynette Carter and is titled Framing the Māori economy: The complex business of Māori business. This paper challenges the dominant Western/capitalist rational economic model and argues that a diverse economies framework for research and analysis will better enable the stories of Māori Small to Medium Enterprises to be represented in the Māori eonomy

This paper outlines key categories and elements of Kia Manawanui: Kaupapa Māori Film Theoretical Framework, developed to interrogate film texts and shed light on the processes of Māori film production and environments within which filmmakers operate. Kia Manawanui film theory is informed by diverse expressions of Kaupapa Māori , Indigenous and critical media studies, discussions with Māori filmmakers, theorists and film texts, particularly Ngati (1987), Mauri (1988) and Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Wēniti—The Māori Merchant of Venice (2002).

Young Māori parents strategically navigate Western parenting expectations, and issues of indigeneity in their construction of early parenting. A culturally based narrative approach to research with young Māori parents revealed personal stories of early parenting located in wider expectations from family and peers, their Indigenous community and society. The application of a Māori relational analytical framework reveals how young Māori parents navigate and negotiate assumptions about being young and being Māori.

This article draws on the textual analysis of films that produced three distinctive collective resistances across New Zealand film history. Hāhi Ringatū leaders protested to the Chief Censor about the portrayal of their beloved prophet Te Kooti in the Te Kooti Trail. The director was forced to make changes, and delayed the release. Later, after decades of support, Te Arawa were collectively absent from film production for nearly 40 years after director Alexander Markey insulted their manaakitanga with a series of misdemeanours during the production of Under the Southern Cross.

This paper explores an agenda for consumer behaviour research as it relates to tribal consumerism. It is argued that while the international consumer behaviour research field is inspired by Indigenous knowledges, the quality of research will be relatively poor and unconvincing unless Indigenous researchers and voices make their way into those conversations. We argue for greater plurality through Indigenous participation in consumer behaviour research, and we challenge business schools to realise their accountability.

The realisation of the developmental aspirations of Indigenous communities requires a reframing of economy and economic representation. The “diverse economies” framework provides a platform from which to counter the dominant Western narrative surrounding notions of economy, and bring to the fore forms of enterprise and practices all too often “hidden” or viewed as alternative, and therefore deemed inferior.